Rapid Makes Rapid Return to Cable

3/27/2003 8:16 AM Eastern

By: Mike Farrell

The growing ranks of former cable executives re-entering the industry grewbigger when Rapid Communications LLC president Tom Semptimphelter agreed to buyabout 6,500 subscribers in Virginia from NTELOS Inc.

Terms were not disclosed, but a source familiar with the matter pegged thesale price at $8 million to $9 million, or about 10 times annualized cashflow.

Rapid was a small player in the 1990s, amassing about 36,000 subscribers inseven states, including Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee.

The company sold those systems in 2000 and 2001 to Mediacom CommunicationsCorp., Cox Communications Inc. and Comcast Corp. in a series of deals.

Semptimphelter, former vice president of corporate development atTele-Communications Inc., kept one foot in the industry and has been involved ina few small cable-construction firms since then.

In January, Rapid rejoined the cable-systems business, purchasing about 4,100subscribers in Clinton, Ind.

"It seemed like there was an opportunity there," Semptimphelter said. "Not alot of deals were getting done, and I thought if we could get some deals, we'dmake a pretty nice business."

Rapid plans to expand its cable footprint, but it has no set goal as to howbig it will ultimately get. The company will be opportunistic, Semptimphelteradded, with no set focus on any particular geographicarea.